[2610] This couplet is quoted by Jahāngīr also (Tūzūk, trs. Rogers & Beveridge, i, 348).
[2611] This, taken with the positions of other crossing-parties, serves to locate ‘Askarī’s “Haldī-passage” at no great distance above ‘Alī-qulī’s emplacement at the confluence, and above the main Bengal force.
[2612] perhaps, towed from the land. I have not found Bābur using any word which clearly means to row, unless indeed a later rawān does so. The force meant to cross in the boats taken up under cover of night was part of Bābur’s own, no doubt.
[2613] ātīsh-bāzī lit. fire-playing, if a purely Persian compound; if ātīsh be Turkī, it means discharge, shooting. The word “fire-working” is used above under the nearest to contemporary guidance known to me, viz. that of the list of persons who suffered in the Patna massacre “during the troubles of October 1763 AD.”, in which list are the names of four Lieutenants fire-workers (Calcutta Review, Oct. 1884, and Jan. 1885, art. The Patna Massacre, H. Beveridge).
[2614] bī tahāshī, without protest or demur.
[2615] Anglicé, Wednesday after 6 p.m.
[2616] Perhaps those which had failed to pass in the darkness; perhaps those from Haldī-guẕr, which had been used by ‘Askarī’s troops. There appear to be obvious reasons for their keeping abreast on the river with the troops in Sāran, in order to convey reinforcements or to provide retreat.
[2617] kīmalār aūstīdā, which may mean that he came, on the high bank, to where the boats lay below.
[2618] as in the previous note, kīmalār aūstīdā. These will have been the few drawn up-stream along the enemy’s front.
[2619] The reproach conveyed by Bābur’s statement is borne out by the strictures of Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dūghlāt on Bābā Sult̤ān’s neglect of duty (Tārīkh-ī-rashīdī trs. cap. lxxvii).